Tag: automaker

– What should have been the first podcast for March 2015 is about a month overdue.

– What should be a bit warmer weather is now cold this first few days of April. warmth will be here soon.

News – Story 1: Former Arizona county sheriff against Obamacare, needs help paying medical bills

– Richard Mack who is very much against Obamacare, and a self-proclaimed member of the “constitutional sherif” movement, is having struggles paying his medical bills; he and his wife contracted serious illnesses, suffering a heart attack himself; he has made many attempts to block the ACA, using all sorts of methods like a lawsuit against gun control and tying that to how states can refuse to take support for the ACA; but now he is self employed and cannot pay his medical bills; a GoFundMe has been setup so others can pay his medical bills, cause god forbid he should let any gov’t agency pay for health care; you know I don’t feel bad for this guy; kind of like sickness karma; anyone is more than happy to donate to his cause, but know that he doesn’t care about your health in the end; just his “stress” while dealing with his illness.
– Link to article: Uninsured Ex-Sheriff Who Fought O-care Struggles To Pay Medical Bills

– Matt Fairbanks is a DEA agent who is the one speaking out with this warning; his experience in pot raids and back-country marijuana garner him some type of expert; so much that he worries about rabbits eating this weed being grown on mountain sides and getting stoned; what’s next, skunk weed?; seriously, what’s he been smoking?; all joking aside, he’s out in the left field; his arguments against any type of legalization fall flat pretty quick since the more legalizing that happens, the less illegal pot will be grown; it’s pretty simple math; the bill eventually failed by 1 vote; wonder if this wing nut would have kept his mouth shut, there might have been a bit more support for this; let the rabbits eat more weed.
– Link to article: DEA warns of stoned rabbits if Utah passes medical marijuana

News – Story 3: Body camera maker Taser has ties to police chiefs

– From Fort Worth, TX to Salt Lake City, UT, police chiefs have financial benefits to purchasing body cameras from the stun-gun maker; most of the time, there are no-bid purchases, which exclude other companies that make body cameras; the conflict of interest here is that these police chiefs like Chris Burbank of Salt Lake City, whose gets some travel paid for by Taser; Jeffery Halstead, former police chief of Fort Worth was quoted after signing a contract with Taser “Someone should give me a raise”; this raises questions all over the place, such as how other companies get shut out and no chance to bid their products; also, what kind of possible insight would a police chief have over how to turn off a body camera or delete footage; just want to make sure there’s some transparency here, otherwise the body cameras won’t be effective at all.
– Link to article: Salt Lake City Police Chief Burbank: I don’t profit from Taser connections

RANT: First Tesla showroom in Utah stopped from opening because of archaic laws protecting dealers and franchisees

– the electric car company has setup shop here in Utah and is all ready to sell new cars to consumers; just one glitch, it’s illegal; turns out that the existing car dealerships have already created laws years ago to prevent an automaker from selling directly to the consumer; the auto dealership lobby fought hard against this law and a bill that was created to allow Tesla to sell cars direct to Utah drivers failed in the 2015 Legislative session; state representatives don’t want to cater to just one type of car; as it turns out, they have a history of treating their dealers in the state with individual attention; the Larry H Miller group complained many years ago about car dealers open on Sunday when he chose to close his business on Sunday; worried about no sales, he went to the Mormon legislators and they created a law that prohibited selling cars on Sundays; so now Tesla wants to do business and the lawmakers say no; turning away business and tax dollars; shame on Utah.
Link to article: Tesla dealership in doubt after House rejects online-sales bill

SHAMELESS PLUG: LEGOLAND California builds a 500,000 brick Death Star

– as a self professed and life long LEGO fan, this is pretty freaking awesome; this behemoth of a Death Star resides in LEGOLAND in Carlsbad, CA; incredible creations like this deserve to be celebrated and praised on every level; 1900 lbs, 13 feet high, 8 feet wide; it even includes a working laser, like in the 1977 movie where it takes out the planet Alderaan; or a recreated destroying of the Death Star itself by the a Force-indused calculated shot by Luke Skywalker; of course, we wouldn’t want to destroy this LEGO creation; not just because of how many LEGO pieces it took to build it, but the time and effort to make it perfect; I hope to see this in person someday.